


Wonderboy

by boxoftheskyking



Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Angst, Before the Glade, M/M, prequel fic, vaguely stream of consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 16:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2395481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxoftheskyking/pseuds/boxoftheskyking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I-den-ti-fy patterns," Minho sings in an admittedly great Dr. Paige impression. "Class-i-fy differences. De-ter-mine what is out. Of. Place."</p><p>---<br/>One day in the years before the Glade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wonderboy

**Author's Note:**

> All love and honor to rosewindow, beta of betas.  
> I haven't read any of Dashner's prequels or anything, so this is all completely made up based on what I remember of the trilogy. Apologies if that bugs you, but hey it's fanfic.  
> I have a lot of ideas and feelings about labs full of children, so hit me up if you want me to express them by waving my hands around like this.  
> But I think that there can be a few shifts in Thomas' character - from when WICKED starts to when people started leaving for the Maze, to his memory wipe to his coming into his own during the Trials. So I'm looking at the first part, here.

"What's on the docket, Wonderboy?"

"Shut the fuck up, asswipe."

Minho sticks out his tongue and buttons up his shirt.

"I know you know. And you know I know you know."

"Go eat breakfast."

"They always tell you first. WonderTommy the Wonderboy."

Thomas gets behind him and shoves him out the door. "I don't know what's up today. Probably the same as last Tuesday. Even a musclebrain like you can identify patterns."

"I-den-ti-fy patterns," Minho sings in an admittedly great Dr. Paige impression. "Class-i-fy differences. De-ter-mine what is out. Of. Place."

Thomas cracks up and slings an arm around his shoulders. They make their way out of the dorm quarters and down the hall to the caf, waving at a pair of lab attendants as they pass. They've never seen these two before, but that's nothing odd. Attendants don't last long around here. _Squeamish_ , Radson calls them. Speaking of -

"Hey, Radson!" Minho calls out as the neurobiologist rounds a corner, cursing as his coffee sloshes onto his sleeve.

"Ugh, not you two again."

"You love us, Radson," Thomas winks at him. "We brighten your day."

Minho blows him a kiss. "Admit it. You know we do."

"A pair of fucking fluorescents, that's what you are." Radson ducks into his lab.

The boys hold their breath as they pass it. It's an old superstition based on an old ghost story that started way back at the beginning, when Wangari went in for a Routine (they always call the exams Routine, even though they're never the same twice) and came out in a body bag. You hold your breath for the whole length of the lab, which is one whole corridor. Right turn to right turn. All the kids do it. Even though nobody else has died since, that they know about. Other kids come in - not the usual group, they don't stay in the dorms or eat in the caf or anything - and no one knows where they end up. But they're probably Cranks anyway, so it's not like they had much life to worry about.

They take seats with Winston and Jeff and Ada in the caf. Normally they'd be with Gally, too, but he went Up last month. It's weird without him. He's prickly, but by now it’s gotten mostly endearing. Ada always used to piss him off, call him "my little _gallito_." He'd be all, "That's not even my real fucking name! They gave me that stupid fucking name!" And everyone would laugh loud enough to shut him up. You had to shut him up quick when he got on that track. It’s okay to mention it, like, in a joke like that. But if you think more about it, then you feel that weird spot in your mind where your real name is supposed to sit, the spot they emptied out way back years ago that never really filled in. You have a name, and it works just like a name should, and maybe you even like it, but sometimes it just doesn't fit right, in that little hole in your mind. Everything but your name you keep, whether you want to or not.

“Motivation,” Dr. Paige said once, when an attendant asked her. Winston had started to cry in one of the tests; an image on the screen reminded him of the place he used to live, and the attendant asked why they didn’t just clear him out. “Motivation,” Dr. Paige had said, nodding wisely, and the attendant had shut up.

But no one wanted to talk about any of that, because it's not like you can change it. So they'd all give Gally his laughs and then move on. Gally didn't mind so much, the _gallito_ thing. He's only really rough on the outside - once they got to know him they learned the difference between Gally Really Minds and Gally's Being a Shit. Gally Really Minds usually only came out in tests, anyway. He had a reputation for “not reacting well to new stimuli.”

And besides, Ada always gave him this little smile when she said it, and his ears would turn a little red. Everyone know he had a thing about her, even though he never did anything about it. One time he helped her put up her long, dark hair. She always had it pulled up in three little buns held by three blue mechanical pencils, and one time she said, " _Gallito_ , can you help me?" even though she did it by herself every day anyway. It was weird of her to ask, but Gally went all pink and said, "Okay," and he twisted up her hair really slowly and stuck in the pencils, and it was terrible and Thomas saw her redoing it later, but anyway after that Gally didn't get so mad when she called him that.

Jeff always snorted when she said it, though, because he had a mind straight out of the gutter.

It's been kind of quiet since Gally left.

Minho kicks Thomas' feet under the table. "No, but really. Give me a hint."

Thomas tips his head, considering. Then he grabs Minho's feet between his own and swings them back and forth. Minho looks confused. Thomas sighs and picks up his plastic spoon, balances it at the edge of his tray and rocks it back and forth.

Minho raises his eyebrows.

"Okay."

"I'm not supposed to tell you this stuff."

"What are you guys doing?" Winston grabs Thomas' spoon and steals a spoonful of his applesauce.

"Hey! That had the perfect amount of cinnamon, thank you very much."

Winston smacks his lips. "Mm, you're right. What are you guys talking about?"

"Leave them alone, Winston," Ada shoves him back. "They're just being in _loooove_."

"Shut up, Ada," Minho says. Thomas hunches his shoulders and concentrates on his breakfast, scooping up applesauce with his fork until Minho hands over his spoon. Minho taps his feet with his own, and Thomas nods shallowly. He likes the others, he really does, but they’re a lot to handle first thing in the morning.

"So," Minho murmurs in his ear as they dump their trays. "SeeSaw again?"

SeeSaw has a better name, a more official-sounding name. Something about Retention and Observation or something. But everyone calls it SeeSaw - even Dr. Paige if she's not watching herself. See what you see, then say what you saw. Basically, they watch a series of images or videos and then they have to answer a bunch of prompts for if they did or did not see certain things. It's boring as shit, but the attendants seem to like it.

Thomas shrugs. "It's Tuesday."

“Didn’t do it last Tuesday.”

“Last Tuesday was special. The Board was here again.”

“The Board? You didn’t tell me that.” Minho almost runs into a trash can he’s staring at Thomas so hard.

“I didn’t?”

“No, Tom, you didn’t.”

Thomas shrugs. He picks up his pace, just a little, not looking at Minho.

“Dr. Paige mentioned it to me. I mean, introduced me. I mean, I met the The Board.”

“You _met the fucking Board_?”

“I don’t –”

“And you didn’t fucking tell me?”

“I don’t know, Minho, I felt weird about it.”

“Weird how? Like bad touch weird? Like they’re gonna take you away weird?”

“No, not –”

“Like Teresa weird?”

Thomas glares at him.

“I’m done talking about this.”

“Thomas – Tom, come on. Let me be a little– I’m allowed to be taken aback by this. Tom, listen to me.”

Thomas slams the lab door open. Minho scrambles as it swings back at him.

“Jesus, you don’t have to get all pissy with me. Last time the Board was here somebody _died._ ”

“Yeah, well, nobody died this time. Just wanted to talk. Do a couple tests. Me and Rachel.”

Minho drops into a chair. They’re alone in the vid lab – they’ve technically got another five minutes before testing starts, but Thomas practically ran them here.

“You and Rachel, huh? A year ago you’d be –”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“What, she’s still cute.”

“Shut up.”

Minho does, gives him a searching look. He’s seeing how far he can push today, and Thomas doesn’t feel like giving him any hints.

“So. SeeSaw.”

Thomas relaxes.

“Think so. I could be wrong.”

“You’re never wrong. That’s why you’re my Wonderboy.”

Thomas kicks at his chair, and Minho rolls a few feet away.

“Wanna check the Maze before the docs get here?”

“You’re not supposed to–”

Minho blows a raspberry. He crosses to a bank of monitors, flicks a few things, enters a few passwords.

“They train us to be geniuses, and then they never expect us to, you know, be geniuses.”

The screens come to life, eight different views of the Maze. Alby is standing over a pile of wood. Gally has scratched something into the dirt, a design of something. Newt crouches next to him, asking questions.

“Aw, Newt,” Thomas murmurs.

“He looks skinny.”

“Yeah.”

“Gally’s looking grumpy as always.”

“Somethings you can’t change, I guess. I wish we could hear them.”

Four months and Minho hasn’t been able to hack the audio.

“I’ll get it.”

“Know you will.”

They’re interrupted by heels clacking down the hall outside. Minho lunges for the monitors and switches them off.

“Paige?” He whispers. Thomas nods, confused.

Dr. Paige enters, briskly. She looks over to the monitors, but says nothing.

“Morning, Doc,” Minho says.

“Good morning, Dr. Paige.”

“Minho, Thomas.”

“We don’t usually see you in the morning.” Thomas is good at not asking questions.

“Yet here I am. Minho, I’d like you to come with me please.”

Minho stays in his chair.

“What, just me?”

“Just you.”

“N-not Tom?”

“No, Thomas has other things scheduled for today.”

Minho rolls his chair forward, just a bit.

“Where am I going?”

“Elsewhere.”

“But we – we test together. We do it all together.”

“And perhaps you would benefit from a little distance.”

Minho has no response, stays still, gaping at her.

“No,” Thomas whispers.

“Thomas?”

“He’s going Up, isn’t he?”

Minho blanches. “No.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, Minho. It’s time to go.”

“Dr. Paige, please,” Thomas reaches for her arm but thinks better of it. “Send us together. Come on, you’ve tested this, you know we perform better together. Our results are clearer, we’re more focused–”

“Thomas, this has already been decided.”

“When will I come back?” Minho stands up, a little shaky.

“This is for the good of the project. Don’t you want to help the project? Don’t you want to reach your potential?”

“Not without Tom.”

“Dr. Paige, listen–”

Two attendants enter the lab, big guys. Bruisers. More like guards than anything.

“You can’t just take him like this, you can’t!”

“Minho, please step this way.”

Minho steps forward helplessly, not looking away from Thomas. One of the attendants takes his arm. Thomas shoves forward, grabbing Minho’s sleeve.

“Don’t manhandle him! You don’t have to do that!”

“Thomas, please. Behave yourself.”

“Minho–” He can’t think of anything to say.

“Thank you, Nurse. Let’s go.” Dr. Paige turns on her heel and holds open the door.

“Just– Just like that? That’s it?” Minho trips over his feet as they start to haul him away. “But–”

“No!” Thomas lunges forward, but one of the attendants catches him, holds him back.

“Thomas,” Dr. Paige hisses, her voice like ice. “We still have Gally’s restraints. Do we need to get them out again?”

Thomas struggles, growls at her.

“Tom, it’s okay. It’s okay, don’t make it worse.”

“You can’t just take him! I know what you’re doing, I know what you’re going to do to them! You can’t do this to him!”

“Doc, can we have just a minute? Dr. Paige, please, just give us one minute.”

“We have to follow protocol, Minho. You understand. Come along now.”

“No, no, no, no–” The attendant wrestles Thomas down into a chair.

“Don’t hurt him!” Minho calls back. “Come on, don’t hurt him.”

“I’m gonna find you!” Thomas yells. “I’m – Minho, can you–”

As the door swings shut behind them, he tips the chair over and scrambles away from the guard and out into the hall. Dr. Paige halts the others, tapping something into her phone. Thomas all but throws himself at Minho, pulling him as close as he can with the guard forcing an arm between them.

“I’ll find you,” he whispers, forehead against Minho’s cheek. “I will.”

“I know. Tom, it’s okay.”

“No. No. It’s you and me, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck the rest of it. Fuck this place.”

“Yeah, I know. I know. I’ll see you. I promise.”

“Remember, okay. Fuck all of it. I– Minho, I–”

“I know, Tom. I know. Me too.”

He barely hears heavy footsteps behind him before there’s a pinch at the back of his neck and everything starts to swim before his eyes.

“Hey!” he can hear Minho shouting, voice getting squeaky like it does when he’s really upset, but it’s all muddled together. “You didn’t have to do that! He was fine! You didn’t have to – Let go of me! Tom! Hey!”

As the floor comes rushing up to meet him, he sees the toes of Minho’s shoes dragging way.

_Fuck this place_ , he thinks, rage filling head like thunder. It roars behind his eyes, taking over everything until it all goes dark.


End file.
